


An Open Letter to All the Watsons

by ItalicizedPeriod



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, small spoiler for Elementary late season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 13:38:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1650557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItalicizedPeriod/pseuds/ItalicizedPeriod
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Any place, any time, any universe; no matter what you look like, no matter exactly what his name is, or yours: don't abandon your Holmes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Open Letter to All the Watsons

**Author's Note:**

> Some of this had been rolling around my head for a bit, but what finally kicked this off was when living arrangements were discussed on Elementary a few weeks ago. However, it's not Elementary-specific. It's meant to apply to any Sherlock Holmes adaptation or AU -- that's kind of the whole point.

Dear Watsons of the fictional multiverse,

Please do not abandon your Holmes. Don’t move out of 221B Baker Street, or the brownstone, or room B of level 221 of zone Baker in the underground Mars colony, or wherever you may be rooming with him (or her, or whatever pronoun may apply). Don’t spend too much time on your other work. Don’t get married and make him be second in your life after someone else. Don’t go away and leave your Holmes alone. No good can come of it.

He won’t like it, of course, but he won’t just miss you. He _needs_ you. He doesn’t work as well when you’re not there. Oh, he may be able to fill part of the void with nicotine, or drugs, or his violin; it won’t be the same, though. Nothing clears up a problem so much as stating it to someone else, but people look at him oddly if he talks to himself or to an inanimate object, and anyway talking to you is much more effective. You are his conductor of light. You may not be luminous, but your Holmes is darker when you are not there.

Don’t give up on your Holmes too easily, either. It may seem he has abandoned you, vanished, fallen off the face of the earth. Unless you were there when he drew his last breath, unless you saw his body go into the ground, be suspicious. You know his methods. He’s always been able to do things that seemed miraculous. Give him a chance to do it again. Give him a chance to return to you.

He may not admit any of this to you; he may not entirely realize it’s true. He’s probably told you it’s his business to know things other people don’t know, but where you are concerned he has a bit of a blind spot. So he may be the one who doesn’t know what everyone else sees: that you and he belong together. You are his best friend, as he is yours. He needs you; you complete him. You are the person he loves most in the universe.

Stay with him. He loves being Sherlock Holmes, but he can’t properly be Sherlock Holmes without John Watson at his side.


End file.
